WHEN MOST people think of neo-Nazis, they invariably
envision a blond-stubbled skinhead tattooed with swastikas
and clad in a flight jacket and Doc Martens. But reality
doesn't always live up to the stereotype, judging from the
middle-aged and conservatively dressed turnout Monday night
at a lecture by leading Holocaust denier David
Irving. In fact, some anti-fascist protesters at the
event looked more suspicious than the lecture goers. But
neo-Nazi groups haven't given up their habit of duping
ordinary folks into advancing their cause.

James K. Egly, interim pastor of the Colonial
Heights Presbyterian Church at Southeast 28th Avenue and
Stephens Street, can attest to that. Registering under the
benign-sounding name of "Pacific Northwest Historical
Society," neo-Nazi organizers reserved for Irving a
convenient pulpit from which to spout his revisionist
poppycock to a crowd of 50 to 75 supporters, among them
Portland lawyer Michael Clinton, who sponsored
Irving's 1992 Portland lecture. Irving, who has been banned
from Australia, Canada, France, Germany and Austria, argues
that Hitler never ordered the extermination of 6 million
Jews and that there is no documented evidence that gas
chambers were used at Auschwitz.

"We got suckered into it," Egly says. "The first we knew
of the character of the group was when the police called
[Monday] afternoon.... We feel we were victims as
much as anybody else."

Misleading people into listening to Irving's revisionist
history couched in scholarly language isn't a new tactic
among neo-Nazi groups. When Irving toured Portland two years
ago, Oregonian columnist Phil Stanford was
duped into defending him in two separate columns. "Irving is
not a neo-Nazi sympathizer," Stanford wrote in October 1992
in response to a story in Willamette Week ("Hitler's Prick,"
NewsThins, WW, Oct. 22, 1992). 'He is a British
historian who has published a number of highly respected
works on World War II--and along the

Irving argues
that Hitler never ordered the extermination of 6
million Jews and that there's no evidence gas
chambers were ever used at
Auschwitz.

[Continued in next
panel]

October 11, 1994

way has said some pretty upsetting things about the
Holocaust." Stanford later apologized in print for his
error.

Jonathan
Mozzochi, executive director of the Coalition
for Human Dignity, says neo-Nazis prey on the gullible
to swell their ranks. "Holocaust denial banks on trying to
recruit folks to the idea that there is some kind of debate
around the Holocaust," he says. "There isn't."

But there is little chance that anyone could have
attended Monday night's lecture without catching on that
Irving stands accused of sympathizing with Nazis. A group of
about 125 protesters chanted, marched with anti-Nazi
placards and hurled epithets at all who crossed the church's
doorstep for the invitation-only event. At least 18 police
officers spent the evening patrolling the church grounds to
keep the peace, although they weren't wearing riot gear as
they did for Irving's last visit.

Although the majority of protesters were from such
mainstream groups as Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, the
Coalition for Human
Dignity, the Urban League and the Jewish Federation of
Portland, a group of about 20 anti-racist skinheads drew the
most attention. These young protesters taunted lecture
goers, cursing and spitting
on them, but had little success in angering the mainly
middle-aged invitation holders. In fact, one protester was
arrested on charges of disorderly conduct for spitting on
Irving. Lecture organizer and local neo-Nazi leader Derek
Stenzel, whose criminal background, protesters said,
includes a racially motivated assault on an African-American
in 1992, was also arrested for a probation violation.
Portland police spokesman C. W. Jensen could not find
out whether the offense was racially motivated but did
confirm that Stenzel was on probation for assault.

Those inside and outside the church were no doubt
preaching to the converted but protesters argued that the
demonstration was nevertheless vital.

"We believe they see Oregon as a test market," says
Steve Wasserstrom, chairman of the religious studies
department at Reed College. "We do not believe you can have
a neo-Nazi rally in Southeast Portland and allow it to
operate with impunity."

Maureen
O'Hagan

Notes:

It is instructive to see the extent to which the
local newspaper reporters, while reporting faithfully
what they see with their own eyes, also uncriticically
adopt at face value the Coalition
for Human Dignity's press-release evaluations of the
various organisations involved ("neo-Nazi"), no doubt to
spice up the story. For the use made by the ADL-funded
Nizkor Website of this press story, see the Cesspit.